{"id":7223,"date":"2021-10-18T12:16:06","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T12:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nosmallthing.net\/main\/?p=7223"},"modified":"2021-10-18T14:45:22","modified_gmt":"2021-10-18T14:45:22","slug":"rebranding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nosmallthing.net\/main\/rebranding\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebranding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Baseball, jazz, iPhones\u2026when I think about the great things America has introduced to the world, I don\u2019t usually think about instant pancakes, but the product seems important now.<\/p>\n

Many years ago, I had a part-time gig as a tour guide. There was an international convention in town, and I supported about twenty-five psychiatrists from Turkey, showing them the sites of Chicago when they were not in a conference session and helped their translator and guide from Istanbul get their needs met.<\/p>\n

One woman, with credentials that could stretch as long as the Galata Tower is high, pulled me aside, and asked if I could get her a couple boxes of Instant pancake mix. I thought this was an odd ask, but apparently they didn\u2019t carry such a thing in her local store.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not big on eating carbs, in general, but I do love my pancakes. At home, I have a griddle that fits on the stovetop, and I will savor pancakes with blueberries or thick cut ham prepared there. There are even favorite brunch spots I might go to with a friend on weekends and enjoy a flight<\/em><\/strong> of flapjacks, a selection of silver dollar-sized, golden treats featuring pumpkin, coconut, or lemon curd flavors.<\/p>\n

The recollection of how happy the psychiatrist from Istanbul was when I brought her two boxes of Aunt Jemima\u2019s (she asked for the brand by name) for her to stuff in her suitcase came back to me while I moved my way down the breakfast aisle at my store the other week.<\/p>\n

I needed to restock, but I had problems finding the familiar box on the shelf where I thought it would be.<\/p>\n

There were red boxes in the right shade of red but none looked familiar to me.<\/p>\n

Around the fifth time I scanned the same few shelves, I studied a box. In prominent, sort of old-fashioned type, it read:<\/p>\n

Pearl Milling Company<\/strong><\/p>\n

Near the top of the box, there was rendering, the size of a quarter, of a brick factory\/warehouse, next to the declaration, \u201cSince 1889.\u201d On the upper left side was a bright yellow triangle. In black and red letters, it boasted \u201cLARGE SIZE, MAKES ABOUT 40 PANCAKES.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the lower right, in a less eye-catching spot, it read:<\/p>\n

NEW NAME \u2013 SAME GREAT TASTE \u2013 AUNT JEMIMA<\/strong><\/p>\n

Of course. I heard about this rebranding project months ago, I just hadn\u2019t seen the new boxes at the store yet, not on the shelves.<\/p>\n

Packaging for this breakfast favorite has gone through some updating over the years. Quaker Oats bought the brand in 1925. Trying to escape associations with a tradition of slavery in the old south, in 1989, the character, apparently representing Aunt Jemima, was depicted without her kerchief but this wasn\u2019t taking things far enough.<\/p>\n

Quakers Oats marketing execs<\/a> wanted something to give a sense of history, appealed to men as well as women and could support other products. They decided on using the \u201cPearl Milling\u201d name, which carried no immediate associations with slavery. They kept the red box, making the transition easier on consumers.<\/p>\n

For product promotion, branding is about how something is perceived, especially by a target audience. More and more, I\u2019m hearing about personal branding, the idea of how you show up in the world.<\/p>\n

As I can see in the story of this iconic pancake mix, a product can be rebranded. Planning rebranding in the commercial realm revolves around taking old fans with you as you change.\u00a0 Rebranding on a personal level starts with determining who you are and how you want to be<\/strong> perceived in the world.<\/p>\n

Hopefully you\u2019ll take old fans with you as you change, but the thought is probably not lost on you that if your friends and family don\u2019t want to travel with you as you become more of who you are already, maybe it\u2019s time to focus on other relationships.<\/p>\n

How do I want to show up?\u00a0 It\u2019s always a good time to ask yourself this question. For me:<\/p>\n